I feel really bad for Emily – you don’t make it on the show unless you’re good at trivia. She just got a bum draw and, out of desperation, dug herself into a hole.

Matt

Jackson

Emily

Rollman

Elicia

Woerle

35,000

-1,200

3,600

Even in my UTOC game, when I had a huge lead, I made a number of bad guesses that likely cost me the lock heading into Final. I can only imagine what I would have done had I ever squared off against a steamroller.

As for tonight, with a category like…

VIDEO GAMES

… I expect Matt to make a humongous wager.

What actually happened

Matt

Emily

Elicia

35,000

-1,200

3,600

15,000

0

50,000

3,600

min

max

27,799

Matt has now tied Arthur Chu for fourth place all-time in the win column, with four thousand dollars more: $339,411.

Dark Lord might now be back on the TOC list. From what I’ve heard of the 2014 TOC, its qualifying period ended one month before, and this game was one month before the start. It all depends on what the producers decide to do with a current champion at the cutoff.

Hi, this is Elicia. Several people have asked why I wagered $0, especially because I do know a good bit about video games, so I thought I’d share it here (if anyone is interested). You can probably figure out my thinking already.

First, I’m really not that great at math on the fly, or figuring out FJ type scenarios, but my husband – also a former J! contestant – happens to be an economics and game theory expert, so I had a little help. I only had a month between The Call and The Game, and I spent every single day of that month being coached by him and practicing FJ wagering scenarios. I had the strategy down cold, had gotten *really* good at doing that sort of math, and felt 100% comfortable with it and was even excited to be able to put this new – and very specific – skill to work in FJ. Of course I was hoping I would have a runaway and I wouldn’t actually have to do any figuring at all… which is what happened, though not quite how I’d hoped!

It got to FJ and I was going to be in 2nd no matter what. Originally I thought “what the hell” and wagered $3400. I just didn’t want to end up with $0. Then I contemplated a bit and changed my wager to $0, and here was my thinking. Chances were it was a question I would get, but there’s always that tiny possibility that it’s something completely obscure where the writers decided to get cute and I would just have no idea. Since my wager did not matter one bit, I would be second no matter what, I decided I would rather end up in second place with $3600 than with $200. Sure, I might have ended up in second with $7000, but I decided to hedge my bets, as it were, and ensure coming in 2nd with my $3600. I know that’s kind of silly, but at that point, I was trying to hold on to whatever shred of dignity I had left, since none of it mattered. I’m sure plenty of people will think that’s dumb reasoning.

I am curious to hear from the expert what you would have done in my position?

If second place got to take home whatever they won, I would have stuck with $3400 as my bet to try to get $7000. Alas.